That was fantastic television. The writing, acting, pacing...just perfection.


Meanwhile, I am laughing my ass off about crowbar's post. Good call buddy.

Like I said fellas, I won't crap on the thread anymore with negative drivel, I'll let yall enjoy and discuss. I did get sucked into with Sons of Anarchy, and I feel the exact same way with this show as far as value. I feel very cheated these last 2-3 episodes. You guys enjoy!

Last 3 episode's content warning: rated LV
Previous episodes: rated LSV

We're certainly never going to see Nina's sweet backside again, unless it's in Stan's or Oleg's dreams.

Methinks OP should confirm the content ratings prior to viewing if that is important to him.

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thats an Emmy episode right there

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She deserves one, but she'll never even get nominated for this show, which is too bad.

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If you think about it, she plays multiple characters in every episode. She definitely deserves some attention from the Emmy committee (or whatever it's called)

I know I'm in the minority, but I think the Martha actress should win one too.

Matthew Rhys should win one for Best "I. Am. PISSED." Look In Hollywood.

Agree with most posters above. They absolutely knocked this episode out of the park.

I was not expecting that at all, and was not disappointed in the slightest.

This show reminds me of the Sopranos... We are viewing an underworld (Mob/Spies) through the lens of a family with varying levels of dysfunction. There is mob/spy action, but the real heart of the show is the interpersonal drama set within the context of what's going on just under the surface of everyday life.

The Sopranos was more dark humor... it was alternatingly hilarious and horrible. This show is more unsettling and suspenseful.

I don't get your criticism

This is a spy show. But it has depth in that it's showing what the day to day lives of the spies are like

one of the things i like about this show is wondering what these folks did when the USSR collapsed. doubt we'll ever see that in this show, though i suppose a fast forward is possible at series end. what happens to people like phillip and elizabeth is one thing, but now - what the hell does someone like martha do (assuming she survives)?

Looks like we were all correct on Stan trying to flip Oleg. That could make for some tense moments, as I think Stan is going to get closer than ever this season to sniffing out Phillips and Elizabeth.

Also, i still think Pastor Tim and his wife are more likely to end up dead this season than becoming "agents". Maybe that's because Paige signs off on it or maybe not.

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I was pretty sure there were people like the illegals in real life but I didn't know the creator actually got the plot straight out of the headlines....

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/discovered-our-parents-were-russian-spies-tim-alex-foley?CMP=share_btn_tw

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That is a great article.

From the preview it seems like the virus storyline is really going to get some play tonight. It has been pretty dormant since the episode where they were all quarantined.. Should be interesting

Pumped up for it. Should be a good one. Relieved that Martha seems to be wrapping up (hopefully)

The virus is still in play 7 months later and after being flown to Cuba with Martha? Hmmm....

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The virus is still in play 7 months later and after being flown to Cuba with Martha? Hmmm....

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The other virus. The rat one.

while seemingly low key after last weeks jump this was a pretty deep episode for the ice queen. after last weeks tour de force she had some real human emotion this week. that was obviously tough for her to do to yoong hee (s?) probably the only nearly "real" friend she has ever had.

also for anyone too young to know...the response to "The Day After" was pretty real. people were very upset and it was definitely must see TV at the time as they showed it. Everyone watched it. And talked about it.

side notes:

- was just waiting for a kid to walk in on her watching the porn....lol. too bad.
- man Tatiana must have some kind of magic V...Oleg was acting like he'd never been in one before!!
- Alison Wright (Martha) not in the credits any more....guess she is gone gone. No Martha sideshow in USSR

I really thought Elizabeth would balk.

FX does a great job of having you pull for the bad guys.

Preview for next week looks damn good too.

yes Ive never thought twice about Tatiana...I know would like to have some wine with her!

"The Day After" reference was greatness. If you've never seen it I highly recommend it. Some say it may have set us off the path of mutually assured destruction, which was the underlying theme of the episode. That, and it was filmed in Lawrence, Kansas which holds a special place in my heart.

Didn't love this episode. In fact I fast forwarded through parts of the asian guy "seduction". Felt kind of stupid to me.

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Didn't love this episode. In fact I fast forwarded through parts of the asian guy "seduction". Felt kind of stupid to me.

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What is stupid? You don't think that sort of thing is done to comprise agents?

So, are we to assume that before he left she got the access codes from him?

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So, are we to assume that before he left she got the access codes from him?

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uh, no.

No. She blackmails him into becoming her agent now that he's had an affair (or thinks he has). It's called the honey trap.

I know she blackmails him, I guess I just didn't figure they'd drag it out past this episode.

Remind me who he is?

Episode was great. The internal struggle was intense.

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Remind me who he is?

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I don't think they've ever actually said, it's just assumed it's how they are going to get William into level 4

Some references to historical Soviet events in this last episode:

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The Sverdlovsk anthrax leak was an incident in which spores of anthrax were accidentally released from a military facility in the city of Sverdlovsk (formerly, and now again, Yekaterinburg) 1450 km east of Moscow on April 2, 1979. This accident is sometimes called "biological Chernobyl".[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_anthrax_leak#cite_note-Alibek-1][1][/url] The ensuing outbreak of the disease resulted in approximately 100 deaths, although the exact number of victims remains unknown.

Large filters over the exhaust pipes were the only barriers between the anthrax dust and the outside environment. On the last Friday of March 1979, a technician removed a clogged filter while drying machines were temporarily turned off. He left a written notice, but his supervisor did not write this down in the logbook as he was supposed to do. The supervisor of the next shift did not find anything unusual in the logbook and turned the machines on. In a few hours, someone found that the filter was missing and reinstalled it.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdlovsk_anthrax_leak

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On 26 September 1983, the nuclear early warning system of the Soviet Union twice reported the launch of American Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles from bases in the United States. These missile attack warnings were correctly identified as a false alarm by Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces. This decision is seen as having prevented a retaliatory nuclear attack based on erroneous data on the United States and its NATO allies, which would have likely resulted in nuclear war and the deaths of hundreds of millions of people. Investigation of the satellite warning system later confirmed that the system had malfunctioned.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident

Am I the only one who thinks the preview of next week's episode gave a little too much away? The news that Pastor Tim was going to Ethiopia certainly opened the door for the possibility of the KGB kidnapping/killing him while he's there, but I don't see the need to tell us that something will happen for sure. And then to add in the scene of his wife saying she made a tape that outs Phillip/Elizabeth as spies and threatening to turn them in? Seems like something the writers would want us to find out after the Russians think they've made the Tim problem go away, not before.

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Am I the only one who thinks the preview of next week's episode gave a little too much away? The news that Pastor Tim was going to Ethiopia certainly opened the door for the possibility of the KGB kidnapping/killing him while he's there, but I don't see the need to tell us that something will happen for sure. And then to add in the scene of his wife saying she made a tape that outs Phillip/Elizabeth as spies and threatening to turn them in? Seems like something the writers would want us to find out after the Russians think they've made the Tim problem go away, not before.

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That's assuming it was the Russians.